Dwarf vs Monster Tactics
Zombie There are two types of zombies that can be faced in the battlefield: the "mindless" AI zombie and the player controlled zombie. Both types look identical at first glance, but there are some subtle differences that separate the two entities. At a distance, a player zombie can be identified very easily with speed and movement habits. AI zombies will bee-line very quickly towards a target, usually in small groups or packs, while a player zombie can look like it is going against the flow, moving slower, stopping every so often, or perhaps jump running. Additionally, AI zombies will only take one bow shot to kill while a player zombie can take multiple shots. Up close, player zombies tend to be either very mobile in combat in order to heal effectively or sprint/jump hitting for critical damage while AI zombies will simply move to a dwarf to hit it. The nameplates above each monster's head also differ between player and AI zombies. A player zombie will have their name preceded by their monster type (for example "Zombie_) whereas an AI zombie will only have a player name above it (the player name will also be completely lowercase; it does not matter if the real player name has a capital or not). The two types of zombies are usually handled differently by dwarves, but one tip must be stated that applies to dealing with zombies: do not under any circumstances try to fight zombies indoors by shooting a bow. Bows only do 30% of normal damage and will trigger a very strong healing buff in player zombies that will negate the damage done by the bow shot nearly instantly and make the zombie that much harder to kill for melee fighters. In the heat of battle, even if a player knows what to look for, it can be difficult to pick out and hit an AI zombie and a stray arrow may hit a player zombie to trigger the healing buff. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Zombie In most battles, AI zombies have the advantage of great numbers over the dwarves, however the AI zombies are very predictable and as such can be a very easy PROC. Once an AI zombie chooses a target, it will try to find the shortest path to the target, occasionally getting stuck in corners or trying to run into a solid wall. A cornered AI zombie that is stuck pathfinding can be attacked fairly easily for a PROC if it does not try to change targets and run away. A single AI zombie going after a single player may be the easiest PROC available to that player. AI zombies will try to occupy the same space as a player and unless it changes its target will do so mindlessly. This can be used to a player's advantage by a technique called the "zombie juggle". Because weapons do a small knockback upon impact, an AI zombie will be knocked away from a dwarf, but it usually will keeping trying to hit that dwarf and approaching again. With a quick enough swing speed, the AI zombie can be juggled by a stationary dwarf until it is killed. The dwarf should take little to no damage unless more monsters try to attack. When dealing with multiple, but not an overwhelming number of AI zombies, try to catch the names of the zombies and focus on only one name. Be wary of hordes of mindless AI zombies; even a skilled dwarf can be killed by a horde if the armor damage is too great or a sudden lag spike occurs. If a dwarf needs to get away from horde of AI zombies, the dwarf should consider putting its back to the direction it wants to go and keep swinging. The swings of the AI zombie will sometimes knock the dwarf into the desired direction. the dwarf will still cause damage, and perhaps the dwarf may get lucky enough to kill a zombie and start a PROC. Player Zombie A dwarf is far more powerful and resilient than a single player zombie. If there is a straight swing vs swing fight in the light, the dwarf will win 99 out of 100 times. Use your power and healing ale to your advantage and control the fight versus a player zombie. Do not let them run around and take cheap shots; throw them around instead by using charging swings (sprint and jump while swinging) for increased damage and force them to retreat or risk becoming a PROC. Remember that player zombies have vampirism that allow them to heal for each hit they connect with, but with powerful swings a dwarf should win easily. As for the above, also do not let a zombie (or any other monster) lure you into darkness. "Fight in the light or face the Fury of the Night," one could say. In darkness, a fully upgraded zombie can do 2.3 times more damage than normal, and that is a very lethal amount. Always place torches and lamps when you are in darkness and remember that the zombie could be in darkness and benefiting from Fury of the Night while you are still in the light. It is also ill-advised to shoot player zombies with a bow outdoors unless you are sure that you can shoot them multiple times (three shots for a fully upgraded zombie) and the zombie is not engaged in melee with a dwarf. Other dwarves could be trying to start a PROC, and the healing buff the zombie gets from the arrow may prevent the dwarf from starting a PROC. Also, be wary of dwarves approaching a zombie unless they already have a PROC. Skeleton Skeletons, while physically the weakest of the monsters, are also arguably the most dangerous of the common monsters. A skeleton can use quick arrow shots to knock you back and drain your health and armor quickly (even more quick are the wither skeletons). Infiltrator skeletons can slow dwarves down to a crawl (while still suffering knock-back) and impact skeletons can knock you back even further than a normal skeleton. There are a few methods for dealing with skeletons, but they come down to luck or tactics most of the time: * Take a skeleton by surprise: If a dwarf finds a skeleton with their back facing to them, they are most likely going to be an easy enough melee kill. Get to them, stop, then start swinging to make sure you do not knock them around; a good skeleton will quickly turn 180 while flying and get you into the knock-back lock-down mentioned earlier. If they are toe to toe with the dwarf, the dwarf is not moving or jumping, and the skeleton is not paying attention, a few hits should kill them. * Beat them at their own game: Skeletons are either one or two-shot with a bow outside, and even inside they are three or four-shot. If you know you cannot get to a skeleton without them noticing, try quickly firing an arrow. Some skeletons will panic and move away, or you may even kill one. At the very least, you will give them pause as they wonder what hit them and they may use their healing tonic. * Suicide charge (not advised for novices): A daring dwarf could simply try to charge at a skeleton and hope that they are a poor shot or are simply barely paying attention to them. If this tactic is used, it is advised that the dwarf be ready to zig, zag, weave, bob, or do anything to confuse the skeleton and have their healing potion ready and their armor in good shape. Once caught up to melee range, make sure you do not knock the skeleton away from you while swinging (avoid sprinting and jumping). * Slab-to-the-face (veterans only): If you see a group of skeletons perched on a ledge and you know a dwarf is not going to be getting up to kill them at any time, a dwarf can use an EZ Fix Slab to block up the perch or even trap the skeletons in the slab. A major factor to consider before trying this tactic is if other dwarves are going to be traversing through the gap the skeletons are in. A poorly placed slab could spell doom for any dwarves that are caught on the other side. The placement of the slab could also be affected by any knock-back happening right before the slabbing, causing an inadvertent blocking of a major passageway, PROC hall, or shrine. Use this tactic with caution. Creeper Creepers can be the most annoying common monster to try to kill. When they trigger their fuse, their movement speed increases (as fast as a PROCing dwarf) and a good creeper will use the fuse time to maneuver and juke dwarves in order to explode on them for dwarf damage, use their massive knock-back to place them into precarious situations, and/or damage walls and PROC halls. The good news here is that any hit will reset the fuse timer and the creeper will have to ignite again and wait for the fuse timer. Thus, the best way to deal with a creeper would be to ensure that they are continuously being hit. Creepers are hardy among monsters and will take a fair amount of hits before dying, but they only have natural healing and can be weakened pretty easily. Outside, creepers are a two hit monster (except fresh creepers who have not upgraded their carapace, but those are uncommon) with a bow. Archers and Rangers should prioritize creepers for shooting as they can, in the long run, do the most damage of the basic monsters by directly or indirectly killing dwarves or damaging walls and halls. Also, be wary of your positioning on a wall or platform. A creeper can have a surprisingly large blast radius and can knock a "safe" dwarf down off the wall or into a ravine. Of course, watch your back if you are on the front wall for a sneaky creeper to try to blast you into the fray below. Indoors, cornering a creeper and using charge attacks are probably a dwarf's best bet if they do not have a PROC. Listen closely for the hiss, look around, and just try to connect with a creeper to reset their fuse. Of note is a bug that allows a dwarf to get a kill and start a PROC if a creeper detonates after being "tagged" by a dwarf. This can occur if the creeper is "tagged" and immediately ignites their fuse again and successfully explodes within five blocks. At worst, it never hurts to just tag a creeper and hope for the best. The "tagging" effect usually clears after about five seconds. Spiderling A group of spiderlings can turn a wall or a PROC hall into a pile of green goo very quickly so spiderlings should be dealt with as soon as they are seen. Spiderlings are a very quick three-hit kill from melee, and they make very attractive PROC targets. With that in mind, take note that a good spiderling will know it is a target and it may try to lead dwarves away from the shrine or into darkness where wolverines, zombies or venomburners wait. Take advantage of any spiderling that tries to get melee attacks by taking a few swings at them, but do not be tempted to chase a spiderling too far. Spiderlings are also particularly vulnerable to bow attacks, taking only one hit to kill them either outdoors or indoors. Spiderlings are not as fast and do not jump as high as a venomburner, nor do they have any type of healing abilities except for natural regeneration, and only boast three hearts. They also can do significant damage to walls or harass dwarves with long lasting poison. Because of these two facts, they should be among the first monsters targeted for elimination Iron Golem Outside, they are a lesser threat. Hit them with your bow until their armor breaks, and then you can one-shot them with your bow. Inside, they are a bigger threat as it is harder to hit them with your bow while being swarmed by monsters, and getting cornered by a Golem is almost certainly fatal. Usually, rely on BruceWillakers and NisovinsIllusion to proc them, but you are unable to kill them as a regular dwarf and must rely on breaking their armor using your sword or bow and hitting them 2 times after it breaks. Beware that Iron Golems have knockback resistance and can easily charge a shrine or proc hall, corner, and kill unprepared dwarves as long as their armor durability holds or no heroes are nearby. Venomburner The venomburner can range from a moderately difficult to a truly fearsome opponent that can easily slay even the greatest of dwarves thanks to its offensive and defensive power. The venomburner has great mobility and jump height that can make even reaching a venomburner a difficult task. Add to the fact that in darkness the venomburner can drain dwarven mana and heal itself with every strike and you have a monster that is potentially more dangerous than an iron golem at melee. The most important advice that any dwarf should take is to NEVER under any circumstances try to fight a venomburner in darkness. Unlike a zombie fight, in a swing vs. swing battle against a dwarf, a venomburner in darkness should win. Their offensive firepower is too great, plus with every attack they make they are healed while draining the dwarf of its mana reserve. A dwarf trying to stay alive by spamming potion and losing mana through the bites and flames of the venomburner will be dead very quickly. If a dwarf sees a venomburner approaching, flee to a well lit area, or at least place a torch to give light and remove the venomburner's advantage. Once in a well lit area or during daytime, the dwarf has a few options for dealing with a venomburner. The first is using bows; venomburners do not benefit from the bow hit regeneration buff that a wolverine or zombie have. Two or three hits will kill a venomburner, even if they are not spammed as long as the venomburner is not healing in dark melee combat. A dwarf can even safely use a bow against a venomburner indoors due to the lack of a bow hit regeneration buff. Once in melee, especially in light conditions, most venomburners will use their jumping ability to try to confuse a dwarf while spamming flames. While this can be seen as an advantage to a venomburner, jumping also severely reduces the forward momentum of the venomburner. Use this knowledge to your advantage and follow the venomburner's jumps while swinging; they will not gain or lose much distance and they should be killed with only moderate difficulty. If a venomburner is not jumping around and is staying just out of melee range while flame spamming, it may be trying to tempt a dwarf into darkness to try to deal with it. Beware of this tactic and do not fall for it. If the dwarf is aware of its situation and stays in a lit area, a venomburner should be no more difficult to handle than a zombie. Wolverine Wolves are one of the toughest special mobs there is to be. Do not take these foes lightly. Running up to a wolf, "swords a' blazing", is not a good idea since they can regenerate hearts by hitting you and in the darkness they have strength. They also have a 1x1 hitbox instead of a normal 2x1 hitbox like a dwarf, making them extremely hard targets to hit. If you somehow manage to land more hits than they land off of you, they will most likely use their "Leap" to exit the fight and regenerate hearts. (Note that if you plan to fight a wolf head on, try and get a proc beforehand, then attack them for an instantkill.) Outside, avoid fighting head on and use your bow! 3 consecutive shots will kill a wolf (1 bow shot outdoors = 10hearts of dmg, wolf regenerates 5 hearts after being hit with a bow.) Indoors, however, the easiest way to kill these monstrosities is to focus attacking a nearby weaker mob such as a rat or AI zombie for a proc. Then kill the wolf or force it to leap away. Rat As a dwarf, it's usually best to avoid killing Rats with your bow if you can help it, as their extremely low Maximum Health, 1 heart which takes either 2 sword hits or 1 bow shot to kill, makes them a prime target for starting up a proc if you can land a hit with your sword/shovel. Keep in mind that rats sole purpose is your precious torches! Don't let these little guys past your defenses because they will eat up the torches and will gain a significant amount of mana. Digging Zombie The digging zombie is the fastest monster in the monster army, moving even faster than a PROCing dwarf. Thankfully, digging zombies only have no health regeneration abilities and only 10 hearts (four to five sword hits). The problem is actually getting those hits in. Fortunately, most digging zombies only care about one thing: digging. A good tactic to use against digging zombies is actually waiting until the digging starts, and then cornering them in their small holes for an easy PROC. The issue with this strategy is that the wall will be generally weaker, however, grey stone bricks are easy to place (with mortar) and it is better to have a bit of grey area in the wall than a whole tunnel (it can even be used as a trap for other monsters who think it is a completed tunnel). At worst, the digging zombie will run away and try to dig somewhere else. Outdoors, a very skilled archer can take down digging zombies in one full powered shot if the archer can anticipate the speed of the digging zombie. This can be difficult to do, however digging zombies need to stop to dig which can make them very easy targets. Digging zombies can be a threat in darkness as they enjoy the same Fury of the Night buff that a fully upgraded zombie does along with identical attack power. Be wary of armed digging zombies in dark areas as they can cut down a dwarf with surprising speed. Once a digging zombie's pick is broken (which is very quick), they should not be considered a threat unless they are draining shrine health. If that is the case, try to get a PROC from another monster and hope to catch the digging zombie off guard or take a bow shot. Even indoors, the damage stays with the digging zombies and it may force them to run away to naturally regenerate health. |} Category:Tutorials